Kyle Sandilands Debacle – Is This The Type Of Publicity They Need A Week Before Idol Starts?

by Reality Raver

It would appear Australian Idol judge Kyle Sandilands has shown a total lack of judgement again in a morning segment of his radio program on Today FM with Jackie O.

They were interogating a 14 year old girl about whether she was having sex and taking drugs, when she revealed she had been raped when she was 12.

The revelation occurred in a segment where they attach people to a lie detector. Yes I know I don’t get it either. The full story is here in the Daily Telegraph.

In response to her telling them about this traumatic event Sandilands asked “Right, is that the only experience you have had.”

What I also find amazing is the mother had coerced the girl to go on this segment as she wanted to find out if she was sexually active, and/or taking drugs? Why would you put your child in that situation? Also the mother said she knew about the rape. I wonder if she thought any current behaviour issues may be related to that traumatic event. I this lady needs to go to her local library and get a parenting book out. Last time I looked lie detectors were not a recommended communication tool, nor going on breakfast radio is a great way to find out what is going on in your child’s life.

Apparently DOC’s are investigating. This mother sounds like a skank, and I will be doubly disgusted if she got paid to do this.

On the other side of the coin, why does the radio show think it is OK to allow a 14 year old to be questioned about their sex life. There radio licence should be reviewed and suspended for a period of time.

Kyle Sandilands is licking his wounds and feeling sorry for himself. He said, “I’ve certainly pissed off a lot of journos over the years but I’m sad that they’are using the rape of a 12-year-old girl to have a go at me.”

He, or his publicist and I suspect it is the latter has also written a contrite piece on The Punch.

The girl needs to sue the station and then use the money to divorce her mother. And Kyle Sandilands with Jackie O need to examine what they think is appropriate radio, the disturbing thing is their’s is the most popular breakfast radio program in Sydney.

It pisses me off that everyone is blaming the mother. Yes, she’s not innocent, but come on, do not lessen the impact that this idiotic radio show caused. The show, and everyone involved with it, sexually exploited a minor. They sexually exploited a minor!!!! They used a clearly distressed CHILD as cheap entertainment. Kyle referred to the her rape as a “sexual experience”. FFS. It’s not sex it’s rape.

And how is it shocking for them? What the hell were they expecting her to reveal?

I like this tweet from Clem Bastow: “A thought: if “˜The Chaser’ was pulled for two weeks for skit involving “fake”- kids, will @kyleandjackieo be pulled for involving a real one?”-

Spot on, in my opinion.

And yeah, I wasn’t going to watch Idol this year anyway, this just seals the deal. This guy deserves NO airtime whatsoever, in any shape or form. He does NOT deserve to be in a position of power.

Anon – The Clem Bastow tweet is spot on. However I do feel the mother put her daughter into the position of being exploited. A mothers role should be to guide and protect, she has done neither in this circumstance.

The radio station should not have touched this with a 10 foot pole and they did and their resident buffoon mangled it. It was unethical even before the rape confession.
The only good thing to come out of it may be the accused might now be properly investigated.

Injera – yes you are probably write contrite was probably the wrong word. In damage control might have been a better phrase.

RR – totally agree with you that the mother failed her duty of care – I’m glad that DoCS is getting involved. I just object to people saying that Kyle is a douche but ultimately it’s the mother’s fault – it lays all the blame on the mother. In my opinion, it’s much more layered than that. The show has to take some serious responsibility for exploiting a minor, and I’d like to see Kyle apologise for calling rape sex and traumatising the child. A true apology, no claims that it was such a shock or whatever BS qualifying statement he wants to make to attempt to save his arse.

Austereo should have already walked these TWO out of the door along with the production team that put together this segment.
I wonder if they was any psychological advice sought prior to setting this up? If not, why? If so, action needs to be taken against whoever approved this. This wasn’t an open line call in after all.

Rape issue aside, whatever would make them believe that any part of putting a 14 year old child on a lie detector to be quizzed about sexual activity in a very public arena is in any way acceptable?

I’ve heard Kyle and Jackie’s amateur psychology attempts before and they’re playing a very dangerous and unethical game, all for ratings. When this is over, they’ll walk away but the mother and daughter? Has to be significant issues there and this situation will only have augmented them. I hope they get the professional assistance they so obviously need.

The station say they pulled the plug as soon as they could. Even before starting with the questions, the girl sounded under duress – the plug should have been pulled immediately.

The mother’s role in this? Absolutely needs evaluation and I don’t believe personally that this was a desperate measure. That desperate? She should have sought professional help, not 15 minutes of fame with Pink tickets thrown in for the hell of it.

The rape comment? Just shows one of the reasons why rape victims don’t come forward when men like Kyle think that rape equates to a sexual experience rather than one of violence and control.

Wurstsemmel – I think you sum it up nicely, I smiled wryly at your Pink concert tickets because you just know it is something like that. I used to think that Australia would never be able to stage a Jerry Singer type show here as people would not go on it. Now I am not so sure.

Also agree with your comment that rape is not sex, but violence and control.

I don’t know what is worse, the fact that Kyle Sandilands is still on air or this poor Girl’s inbred Mother sold out her own daughter for some radio airtime so she could tell the girls down the RSL she was on the wireless. Say NO To Rape.

Kyle Sandilands is another of a host of right wing philistine shock jocks that poison our society with their vile brand of misanthropic and often racist bile. The problem lies in the fact that the government and the media are controlled by the likes of Murdoch and Packer, who utilize their stranglehold on the media and government to promote their personal agendas. This means we are inundated by right wing propaganda and philistinism,inluding the garbage they attempt to pass off as entertainment.

It’s all part of dumbing down and desensitizing the masses in an epoch of war and economic crisis as they are sticking to us.

Look at shows like the biggest looser and masterchef. These shows are just an excuse to put people under extreme pressure by putting them into difficult situations and watch the explosions. Its all about vilification degredation and shock treatment.

Kyle Sandilands is one of a host of intellectual and moral bankrupts (Andrew Bolte, Janet Albrechsten, Michelle Grattan and Clive James)they we are to believe represent mainstream thought.

As long as finance capital controls our lives nothing will change. Name a single politician that isn’t a grasping moral and culture bankrupt.

David – a lot to think about.
Gives impetus to my sneaking suspicions that we all live in “The Matrix!” So should we all just unplug?
What if we all turned off our tvs, computers and didn’t buy a single newspaper. What then would our world look like, what would we be like and what would we do? I think in our very affluent society (or should the be effluent) we all just obviously have WAY TOO MUCH time on our hands. If we had to work harder and longer to feed our tubby selves, I wonder if any of these “forms” of entertainment would even exist?

David – Have we met before I am sure I may have bought a Green Left newspaper off you at some stage….

Anon – I saw The Matrix and I still have no fucking idea what it was about. Any Matrix for dummies links would be appreciated.
Also I like your other points, but they do in all there good and bad forms, and I suspect if Kyle Sandilands disappeared there would just be someone else to fill the void.

Dear Reality Raver
Rather smug uneducated comment, reducing those of the left wing to the lowest common denominator to that of the radical politics of the Green Left Weekly.

Don’t bother trying again…..

Anon

We don’t live in a Matrix. There is no ambiguity as to what is happening. We are living Orwell’s 1984″”is this not obvious? The ruling elites control every facet of our lives””the mass media is nothing less than a medium over which they have complete control and spew out propaganda 24/7″”brainwashing, desensitizing, dehumanizing and dumbing down.

This is not abstract radicalism””this is the reality in which we live.

We do not need to turn off our televisions, nor cease buying papers””we the people need to wrest back control of them, whereupon we would not been subjected to the bile spewed out by degenerates like Sandilands every time we turn on the TV or buy the paper (he would not be replace by another vapid philistine as the [so-called] Reality Raver suggests)””the vast majority of us are far more intelligent and humane and would put these wonderful resources to much better/positive/culturally and intellectually rewarding uses. A source for real education and good fun.

David – I am starting to worry you may be an ex-boyfriend of mine. You did not study linguistics did you?

In my 20’s I went out with so many men whose ideology was similar to yours who inspired me with their revolutionary zeal over cheap red wine. Their feminist values meant they always insisted on going dutch, as they did not want to demean women, however this view never extended to taking responsibility for contraception.

Anyway back to your point of urging people reclaiming the mass communication tools. I would say that the internet has allowed to some degree the masses to get their views out there and to connect and talk with other people with like minded ideologies and ideas.
It is great that you can read so many different viewpoints on the one issue. I am surprised you are even deigned to comment on my reality TV blog as I suspect you think this genre has contributed to the dumbing down of society. If reality tv had been around when Orwell was writing this classic, I am sure Big Brother and O’Brian would have used it to placate and control the masses.

[…] The Age today says that Australian Idol may be considering dumping Kyle Sandilands over his role in questioning a 14 year old about her sex life on radio. If you have been in a coma for the past week you can read a former post about that debacle here. […]